Art - Japan

Anonymous Japanese Artist
Map of the Ming Empire in China
1681
ink and pigment on paper
Denver Art Museum

Furuyama Moromasa
Actor Ichikawa Danjuro II
as Kamakura no Gongoro
1736
ink and pigment on silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Kusakabe Kimbei
Wisteria at Kameido Temple, Tokyo
ca. 1870-75
hand-colored albumen print
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Photographer
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1880
hand-colored albumen print
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Photographer
Portrait of a Samurai
ca. 1880
hand-colored albumen print
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Photographer
Tattooed Porters
ca. 1880
hand-colored albumen print
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Artist
Design for Decorated Jug
ca. 1880-1910
watercolor and gouache on paper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Japanese Artist
Fan decorated with Grape Vines
ca. 1890-1910
gilded and painted paper, bamboo sticks
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Japanese Photographer
Group of Women
ca. 1900
hand-colored albumen print
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Photographer
Sumo Wrestlers
ca. 1910
hand-colored albumen print
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Printmaker
Sacred Red Bridge
ca. 1920
hand-colored halftone-print (postcard)
National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Printmaker
Japan Air Transport Co., Ltd.
ca. 1930
lithograph (advertising poster)
National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Designer
Textile Sample
1936
printed silk
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Japanese Designer
Shopping Bag from Seibu (Tokyo)
ca. 1980
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Japanese Designer
Shopping Bag from Yaohan (Tokyo)
ca. 1985
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Ikko Tanaka
Japan
1986
screenprint (exhibition poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Bay of Sagami, Atami
(Seascapes series)
1997
gelatin silver print
Guggenheim Museum, New York

from The Ecclesiazusae

Enter Praxagora, speaking to her Candle

O glorious Eie, thou miracle of Sight

        That in the dark canst see, and viewst the Earth

When it is wrapt in pitch; thou Day by Night,

        Thou artificial Sun: whose wondrous birth

And fortune both are from a Woman's hand,

        Assist our Meeting with thy choysest flames;

Dart out such raies, as those when thou dost stand

        By lovers bedds, and seest the youthfull Dames

Melting with heat, and from their fires dost learne

In a refined sympathie to burne.

Thou are noe Traytour, that wee neede distrust

        Thy slippery Faith; thy beams are wont to aide,

Not to disclose: wee ever found thee just

        And true to our Designes; when any Maide

Steals to the Cellar for a cuppe of wine,

        Or undermines a pie, thou holdst thy tongue.

Or if a Lady will bee smoothly fine

        And shave her selfe, thou n'er wilt doe her Wrong:

The criticks of our sinnes, if they will know

They may goe looke; thy Light will nothing show.

Trusty and well-beloved, wee admit

        Thee to our Councell – But now I thinke on it, why doe

none of them come? wee must bee at the Towne-hall by Breake

of day; or else wee may chance to have the Men there before us. 

– Aristophanes (445-385 BC), translated by Nicholas Oldisworth (1631)